African troops to join fight in Mali 

THOUSANDS of African troops were yesterday preparing to join the fight against the Islamists who control Mali's north, as cracks appeared in the facade of French unity over the military intervention.

France increased its force to 1400 soldiers and sent additional combat helicopters to back special forces fighting alongside Malian soldiers against the al-Qa'ida-linked insurgents.
The troops sent by the Economic Community of West African States are expected to number 3300.
CNN reported that the US had agreed to support the French airlift to deliver more troops and supplies to aid the military action by Malian, ECOWAS and French soldiers.
EU members agreed yesterday in Brussels to start a training mission by next month for Mali's under-equipped armed forces.
Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans warned that the threat of Islamist militants was "a matter of concern for all of us, and there is not one country that can hide if this threat were to present itself to the European continent".

Earlier in Paris, senior opposition leaders accused President Francois Hollande of failing to prepare his country for a tough and protracted battle. Former interior minister Brice Hortefeux claimed Mr Hollande had neglected to build an international coalition to back the war effort.
Although a majority of French people support the operation, according to polls, concerns are emerging, especially since the Algerian kidnappings.
Ansar Dine, one of three Islamist rebel groups that control northern Mali, denied any link to a hostage situation in Algeria, where militants claimed that 35 hostages and 15 captors had been killed in a botched Algerian military operation.
"We have (no reason) to be in there, but I know that it is the work of people who defend Islam," Ansar Dine spokesman Sand Ould Boumama said.
Malian Foreign Minister Tieman Coulibaly said the hostage-taking revealed the "true face" of jihadist fighters in the region.
"Their project is purely criminal. There is nothing political about it. It's a criminal enterprise that they want to establish in a part of the world and subject us all to," he said in Brussels.
Mr Hollande's critics say France has opened a new front in the war on terror that it is ill-equipped to face. Former foreign minister Alain Juppe said: "I fear that we have got ourselves into a spiral that we are going to have a lot of difficulty in mastering. We are facing an extremely high risk and we are alone."
It was important to clarify the objectives of the French intervention, Mr Juppe said. "You get the feeling that they have slipped since the first hours and days of the intervention."